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Pet care professionals who use the Loop are a passionate and knowledgeable bunch, and Beth Taylor of The Puddle Aquafitness and Nutrition in South Elgin, Illinois is no exception. Beth has been recommending the Loop to the Puddle’s aquafitness clients for a long time, and she also excels in the realm of canine nutrition. Assisi Animal Health was able to ask her about the use of the Loop with her clients. Tune in next week, as well, for a guest blog from Beth about what everyone should know about pet nutrition.

Can you give me a background on what you do at the Puddle?

The Puddle is a facility that integrates most of my interests. I wrote a couple books on food and nutrition, on fresh food diets for dogs and cats, and I’ve been involved in the initial stages of commercial raw diets for dogs, I worked with an animal chiropractor [Carl DeStefano DC] for ten years. I became a licensed massage therapist and completed the massage and rehabilitation program at The Healing Oasis.

My vet was always searching for a retail store to direct her clients to that carried finer-brand foods. Her sister took on the project of opening one and added the bonus services of swimming and massage. I had experienced the positive results of swimming dogs first hand. It was a perfect fit for all of us. I started swimming one of my dogs about ten years ago. He was 11 at the time and he was getting very tippy. Swimming him once a week at a facility like what we’re doing now kept him going until he was almost 17. So I’m a real fan of swimming.

The front of the store is a small food section which is designed to provide rotation in both dry food and frozen food – it’s not a lot of products. We really try to focus on education to remove road blocks to health. We have a drop-in dog wash, and we have the pool. The pool covers everything from teaching puppies to swim to conditioning for geriatrics. We provide pre- and post-surgical services, and we have massage and bodywork for humans and pets. I do a lot of massage in the water.

Oh, wow, you have massage for humans, too? That’s fantastic.

Yes. In order to do the CVMRT program with Dr. Rivera at The Healing Oasis I had to be a certified massage therapist, and that was a very interesting education. Some people will have an appointment for their dogs, and themselves.

If there were one thing you wish all your clients could know, what would it be?

You’re in charge of your animal’s health. Not anyone else. I see so many people just accepting what they’re told with no critical thinking, never asking questions, not doing their own research. They’re afraid to make waves. Their health suffers, and the health of their animal suffers because they’re not willing or not brave enough to speak up, or they have accepted the idea that someone else knows better than they do how to take care of themselves or their animals.

What kind of issues do you most often treat?

Pain and decreased function. That can be young dogs and old dogs, for many reasons. Almost everybody we see thinks that pain is inevitable and that lack of function is just the way it’s supposed to be. They don’t realize that their own bodies and their dogs’ bodies are not defective. What’s wrong is the diet we provide and how we’re living our lives. We need to be active, and we need to eat real food. And if we do those things, a lot of the problems we have will just fall away. For whatever’s left, we have good tools.

Do you have a hard time getting people to understand that pain doesn’t have to exist?

Yes. People don’t notice pain in their animals, don’t see it, don’t recognize it, and don’t realize that what their animals eat and how they live has anything to do with the pain that they feel. They think, “Well, I’ve got wear and tear in my knee, I’ve got arthritis in my knee, and therefore it’s going to hurt. Same for the dog.”

I’ve seen people with their third dog with the same problems finally getting it. “Yes, if I help my dog live an active life, if I feed him good food, sure we’ll have aging issues, but they won’t be anything like if I weren’t being proactive.” They start to get the picture, but it’s often a slow process.

What has been your experience with the use of the Loop in your practice?

Nothing but good. My main challenge has been explaining it to people. ‘Okay, people. I’m telling you, this will reduce pain and improve healing – all you have to do is sit down with your dog three or four times a day.’ And they sometimes say, ‘Well, that’s too hard. I’ll just give him this drug.’ It’s a constant education process.

I know how well it works because I got the unit while I was in school and I used it myself. My friend and I were there together, and she had just bashed herself into the side of a door. She had a giant bruise coming down her arm. We put the Loop on the bottom of her arm, and then we forgot about it – until the next day when the bottom of her arm looked beautiful, and the top of her arm looked terrible. The bruise was mostly gone on the bottom of her arm.

I have a 14-year-old Golden who uses it regularly. He’s a lot more mobile with it than without it. He swims every week and gets massage every week, but still, the Assisi on that hip joint is really helping him out.

Anything that can be put into the hands of clients that makes them proactive members of the team is going to make a treatment program more effective. Laser is great, but you’ve got to go [to the vet’s office] and do it. You can send people home with the Loop and they’ll have something they can do at home that moves things along a lot further and faster.

I had one client with a German Shepherd with all the typical problems – bad guts, bad skin, very painful in the hips. About six years old, and looked like an 11-year-old. She bought a Loop, used it for a week like I’d told her to, maybe twice a day, and she brought it back and said, ‘It doesn’t work.’ I said, ‘Tell me about it.’ She said, ‘Well, he WAS up and running around a lot more about four hours after we did it, but then he felt bad again!’

Okay – so what you’re telling me is, it worked. And you saw immediate results. ‘Well, yes, but he’s on non-steroidal anti-inflammatories and steroids and he’ll be fine.’ So I’m still working on her!

If we can figure out a way to get over that hump – you know, ‘What if you didn’t have to use those drugs, or if they could be reduced? Those drugs are going to harm your dog.’ People look at me blankly. It seems hard for them to even consider – “But my veterinarian prescribed the drugs.”

I find it’s the same in nutrition education. It can take a long time for concepts to sink in.

You say that some of your clients are hesitant to try the Loop – do you think that’s because it’s not a conventional treatment in pill form?

Yes, and I think it’s the perception that once you’re broken, you can’t get fixed. My mom has arthritis in her hands, and I know of at least five activities she can do sitting in a chair that would make it better, but she doesn’t do them. Many of us are like that. Bucking the trend of how people think about their bodies and their lives is quite a challenge. It’s global, we’re not just talking about Pulsed Signal Magnetic Therapy (tPEMF). You have to question authority and be willing to live your life differently. In this case, it means taking the time to sit down with your animal a few times a day and push a button. Seems doable.

Beth serves as the Puddle’s nutrition advisor, bodywork director and swim coach. She has been intensively involved in health, training, and wellness for animals and people all her adult life. In 1994, Beth began teaching dog training and producing education seminars on dog training and nutrition. Researching fresh food diets for dogs led to her work with Steve’s Real Food for Pets as regional manager and veterinary consultant. She taught retailers and veterinarians how to use fresh food diets and provided support for them nationwide. This work led to the writing and publication of See Spot Live Longer with Steve Brown.

Beth has worked in the practice of Carl DeStefano, DC, assisting him in his chiropractic work, and assisting the practice of Dena Jersild, DVM. Beth has produced seminars with Karen Becker, DVM on health topics, and co-wrote the very popular Dr. Becker’s Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats, now in its 4th printing.

Beth’s extensive education in bodywork modalities for animals includes Acupressure, Tui na, jin shin jyutsu, Triggerpoint Myotherapy, Cranio-sacral Therapy, several Myofascial techniques, Reiki, and Qigong. She is certified in Acupressure through the AAMT and has completed all coursework at Tallgrass Animal Institute. Beth is certified in Spring Forest Qi Gong I and II, EFT level I and II, Reiki I and II, and is a Licensed Massage Therapist. She is also certified in massage and rehabilitation by the Healing Oasis in Sturdevant, WI. Beth is a graduate of La Paw Spa’s Aquatic Training Program Level One & Two and is certified in Canine CPR and First Aid. She is also a member of the Association of Canine Water Therapy (ACWT) and the International Association of Animal Massage and Bodywork (IAAMB).